How to distinguish real fur from artificial fur. How to distinguish real mink fur from fake

Checking a fur product when purchasing it is mandatory. Fur coats are expensive, so the market is full of fakes. Distinguishing real fur from fake is not easy, but the advice of the specialists of the Adena studio will help you with this.

You need to buy expensive wardrobe items in a store or salon that has been operating for several years. Receive a receipt from the seller confirming the purchase and the right to warranty. If any trouble occurs with a coat, fur coat or sheepskin coat during the warranty period, you have every right to bring the product to the seller and demand its replacement or refund. Having bought a fur coat on the market or “on hand”, you should not count on real fur and a guarantee. You will either have to take the product to the studio, or hide it on the far shelf of the closet.

Pay attention to the label, brand name on the product. The absence of manufacturer's marks on a fur coat with a high price tag is a reason to wonder whether it was sewn in the basement from some scrap materials. There are not many manufacturers of first-class fur products on the market. The buyer can easily distinguish their products by their brand names.

If we talk about fakes, then the sellers here are not original. While offering mink to customers, they sell products made from rabbit or marmot. Unlike mink, natural rabbit fur is too soft, and marmot fur has hairs of different lengths. If you look closely, it's easy to see a fake. The rabbit is also passed off as a chinchilla. To identify a fake, run your hand over the surface. A chinchilla's fur is always cool, while a rabbit's fur reaches room temperature.

Sellers like to pass off a fox dog as a silver fox. Here you should focus not on length and stiffness, but on color. The silver fox's color goes from gray at the base to white in the middle and black at the tips. The fox dog has only two colors.

Unscrupulous sellers pass off nutria fur as beaver fur. You can distinguish a beaver from a nutria by its thicker down and short awn.

Not all sellers offer customers to buy a fur coat made from natural, just less expensive fur. Some go even further - selling wardrobe items made of faux fur at the price of natural fur. It is not easy to distinguish faux fur, but it is quite possible:

• natural fur is soft, silky and smooth to the touch, pleasant to touch and run your hand over the surface;
• if you set fire to a few torn fibers, the smell of burnt hair will spread, not melted plastic;
• If you carefully pierce a fur coat with a thin needle or pin, it will encounter an obstacle in the form of durable natural leather;
• By pulling apart the fibers of a real fur coat, you can see natural leather, and not an artificial base for the fibers.

Another trick is coloring. There is nothing wrong with this, except for two nuances. The first is that artificial fur, defects in material and workmanship are hidden under a layer of paint, and the second is that low-quality dye is often used, which is washed off under the first snowfall. To check the fur coat, run a wet cloth over the surface. The colored stripe on it indicates that there is something wrong with the product.

Despite numerous protests from animal rights activists, fur coats made from natural fur remain popular among Russian women, and no artificial fur can keep you warm in the severe frosts that are typical for most of the country. Buying a mink coat is a significant event that does not happen often, so the choice of this product from valuable and expensive fur must be especially careful.

Before you go to the store

First of all, decide how you will wear a fur coat and why you need it. If this is a thing for every day, you should consider fur coats below the knees, with long sleeves that cover the thumb to the middle, and, preferably, with a hood, in which you will not be afraid of any frost. The undercoat of such a fur coat should be thick and dense, which will affect its weight, but will provide the necessary comfort in winter. For executive purposes or for driving a car, you can purchase a short fur coat or short fur coat, with ¾ sleeves, which will need to be worn with long gloves.

Since mink fur is quite expensive, there is always a danger that they will try to sell you a fake mink coat, passing it off as a dyed rabbit, honorik or marmot. A specialist, of course, can easily distinguish a fake, but an inexperienced buyer can be deceived. In addition, the quality of fur and tailoring greatly depends on the country of origin; the bulk of these products on the market are from Italy and Greece; recently, Chinese fur coats of good quality have appeared, but in this case it should be checked especially meticulously. Therefore, it is best to buy a mink coat not in the clothing market, but in a reputable salon or store specializing in the sale of fur products. In this case, you will receive guarantees that the fur is real, and the opportunity to return the fur coat if a marriage is found.

Mink coat outside

At first glance, all the coats hanging on the coat hanger in the store will seem equally attractive to you. To recognize the quality of the fur, the fur coat should not be looked at, but carefully felt and even slightly wrinkled and patted. To the touch, mink fur should be dense, smooth, shiny and slightly prickly, unlike rabbit or goat fur, for example. It should be voluminous and retain this volume if you pressed the fur with your hand, and then released it. Swipe your hand against the direction of growth of the villi - they should not break or fall out. Rub the fur with a piece of white damp cloth - it should not leave traces of paint.

Shake the fur coat so that the fibers lie evenly. On its entire surface, the height of the fur cover should be the same, no bald spots, bumps, bald patches, the effect of "uneven haircut" - this happens when the animal's fur is damaged as a result of a showdown with relatives living with it in the same cage. And, by the way, very often rusty spots from the bars of the cage remain on the fur, and you cannot remove them, incl. Make sure that the fur coat is colored evenly. The length of mink fur can be different - depending on the breed and gender, long-awned and short-awned are distinguished. A short-shafted one will last longer and will cost a little more.

Keep in mind that if you find any defects that will be invisible when worn, you are entitled to a discount.

Mink coat inside

European manufacturers often leave the lining of the fur coat unlined so that you can evaluate the dressing and quality of the fur - the reverse side of mink skins. If the mink is undyed, the flesh should be light in color, ivory or cream, soft and elastic to the touch. Shake the fur coat - there should be no dry, “rattle” sound. Each skin must have a stamp confirming that it is mink; the size of the pieces from which the expensive product is sewn must not be less than 15x15 cm.

There is a technology in which fragments of fur fabric are not sewn together, but glued together; such a fur coat can literally fall apart after just two years of wear. Therefore, carefully examine the seams; they should be thin, even and rolled out, which makes them completely invisible in the product. Sometimes you can hear that a fur coat is sewn “unfold”, this means that for a better fit the skins are cut with a laser and then sewn together. In this case, a herringbone pattern will be noticeable on the flesh. Pieces of leather can be sewn between the pieces of fur; the fewer there are, the more expensive the fur coat is.

When a person buys a fur coat for the first time, he is unlikely to have the skills to check the fur in order to purchase a quality product. An inexperienced buyer is advised to go to a specialized store with a person who has practical experience in handling furs. When purchasing, you need to carefully inspect the item from all sides and study all the tags attached to it. You need to be even more careful at the market or in a store selling various industrial goods. Modern technologies make it possible to produce various imitations that are very similar to natural products. Products whose fur was created using real wool are very similar to real fur coats. The purchase will be successful if the buyer is able to figure out all the secrets that the seller is hiding when trying to sell goods of dubious quality.

Modern production makes it possible to imitate many natural furs. In the store you can purchase varieties of products that resemble popular animals in appearance. There are artificial fur coats for:

• raccoon;
• astrakhan;
• arctic fox;
• silver fox;
• cat;
• hare;
• ermine;
• mink

There is nothing difficult about how to check fur - whether it is natural or not. You need to know the features of making imitations. Artificial material consists of synthetic or natural pile and base.

Artificial material consists of synthetic or natural pile and base

The most common way to make it is to knit a knitted fabric with the addition of tufts of pile, which are taken from a combed tape. Another method involves knitting voluminous plush loops in the fabric, which are then trimmed and form an even fabric of pile. When knitting, the knitwear is glued to a thin film to preserve the strength of the fibers. Such imitation is easily detected. To determine it, it is enough to feel the base of the fleecy fabric. The texture of the knitwear is easy to feel under your hand.

On a note! A modern way of making very successful fur imitations is the tufting method.

Tufting creates excellent imitations of natural fur

Previously, it was used to make carpets, but now it is used to create artificial fur. The principle of making artificial pile is quite simple. Many needles on a special device pierce the fabric and secure the pile. To prevent the threads from unraveling, they are smeared with glue on the reverse side, and the product is ready for use.

Silver fox fur

With the help of tufting, excellent imitations of natural fur are created. Manufacturers use pile threads that have different shrinkage abilities. Heat treatment allows you to obtain multi-level shrinkage, which successfully imitates guard hairs and down hairs.

Arctic fox faux fur coat

Modern manufacturers have increasingly begun to use artificial fur for finishing outerwear, in which the base is artificial and the pile is natural. This type of fur can be identified by pushing apart the fibers and getting to the base, which is made of fabric. Fabrics that imitate natural fur have very thick pile, and this makes it difficult to see the base.

On a note! Excessive pile density is a sign of faux fur.

Modern manufacturers have increasingly begun to use artificial fur for finishing outerwear, in which the base is artificial and the pile is natural.

Cured animal fur does not have such density. The flesh is greatly stretched in order to save money before being cut. Despite all the manufacturer’s tricks, you can always find a way to check whether the fur is real or not. Any technique for creating pile fabrics requires a base, and it will always be fabric or knitted.

Any technique for creating pile fabrics requires a base

Signs of a high-quality tanned skin

In order to check the quality of a fur coat as thoroughly as possible, you need to know the stages of processing the skin. Its finishing will be ideal only if the work takes place in a production workshop.

Natural fur coat

Industrially tanned skins undergo numerous technological processes:

1. Dried specimens are soaked in a special solution, and after some time they begin to clean the core. How well this process went can be shown by the smell emanating from the fur coat. If the skins are not properly cleaned of fat and muscle fibers, the skins become rotten and smell bad.
2. Degreasing is the next step, designed to remove fatty fibers from the flesh. If this is not done, the skin will rattle when shaken.
3. The tanning process gives the product strength. When properly tanned, the skin becomes elastic. After this, it will be able to easily restore its shape with any mechanical action.
4. When the tannins penetrate into the layers of the dermis, the skin is dried and treated with a fat emulsion, which will allow the dermis to retain the remaining moisture inside the cells.
5. After this, the skins are dried, kneaded well using special rollers and separated into varieties. Low-grade skins are dyed.

When properly tanned, the skin becomes elastic

When examining a fur coat, the dyed skin can always be distinguished from the original color. The flesh of a fur coat sewn from high quality natural pieces should be white or slightly yellowish. The yellower the skin color, the older the fur, and the less the coat will be worn. Dyed skins are revealed by the color of the skin. It has the same shade as the fur. Finished skins may have defects:

• hair loss;
• scabs;
• yellow hair;
• exposure and destruction of hair roots;
• keratinization of skin tissue;
• rotting due to violation of processing technology.

When examining a fur coat, the dyed skin can always be distinguished from the original color

All the shortcomings of poor workmanship will appear during operation of the finished product. The smell of raw skin indicates the beginning of the decomposition of the flesh. This occurs due to a violation of processing technology, which leads to rapid cell destruction. For this reason, the layers of the skin become very thin and lose their elasticity.

All the shortcomings of poor workmanship will appear during operation of the finished product.

Homemade fur coats are often infected with skin beetles. This bug is common in hot countries and lays eggs in fresh skins. In the eggs of these insects, biological processes begin at a certain temperature. The hatched larvae actively eat all natural materials that they find in the closet. A fur coat affected by a skin beetle cannot be saved. These shortcomings need to be remembered before you start checking the naturalness of the fur.

How fur products are inspected

Fur coats are made from pieces of different sizes. Cutting the skin allows you to use all the fur without any residue. The resulting pieces are assembled according to patterns, sewn according to certain rules into single parts and all the parts are assembled into a single whole. The finer the cut, the colder the finished product. The larger the plates, the more expensive the finished item will be. Sometimes, instead of stitching, the model is assembled using glue. Such a thing is not intended for the Russian climate. High humidity causes it to become completely unusable.

Properly prepared flesh has a high degree of elasticity and stretches out to the hand

Checking the quality of fur in a finished fur coat is quite simple. To start testing, you need to evaluate tactile sensations and response to mechanical impact:

1. First, it is recommended to stroke the surface of the product with an open palm. High-quality fur is soft to the touch. It has thick pile with rich color and healthy shine.
2. If hair falls off a fur coat when shaken, this means that the animal was infected with scab during its lifetime.

Properly processed flesh has a high degree of elasticity

3. Then you need to grab the sleeve, clench your palm into a fist, twist it and release it. The fur should return to its original position without any traces. Properly made flesh has a high degree of elasticity and stretches behind the hand, creating a pleasant sensation.

4. After this test, you need to part the fur and find the inner part. A white base indicates a high-quality product, colored leather indicates dyed fur. Scraps of thread found in the fur are an indication of handicraft production.

5. Dyed skins are checked for paint fastness. To do this, rub a white napkin over the fur coat. If paint stains remain on it, the product will quickly lose its appearance. Painted hands after contact with the surface of a fur coat indicate that this is a low-quality product, and such a product should not be purchased.

The lighter the item, the more stretched the pieces of fur were, which were sewn according to patterns

6. Now it’s time to estimate the weight of the product. The lighter the thing, the more stretched were the pieces of fur that were sewn together according to patterns. A fur coat that is too heavy indicates artisanal tailoring.

8. Now you can look under the lining. If the product is sewn in a factory, and not in a small workshop, access to the reverse side should be open. You should rub the skin to determine the quality of the dressing. It should be tender and soft. There are purple stamps on the white skins, all the pieces are sewn with small seams.

If the product is sewn in a factory, and not in a small workshop, access to the reverse side should be open

10. If the lining is blindly sewn, then you can sharply poke your finger into the shelf. Rotten mezdra often breaks from this.

Many people buy outerwear made of natural fur for the winter. If the choice falls on a jacket, preference is given to models with a hood, decorated with fur trim. It is both beautiful and practical. In the manufacture of winter models of boots and other footwear, cured skins are also often used - for interior or exterior decoration. How to distinguish real material from artificial one, so as not to pay for a fake? There are several general methods.

The most common products and decorations are made from the skins of rabbit, fox, arctic fox, mink, beaver, as well as astrakhan fur, sheepskin and tanned leather. The rabbit's hair is soft and fluffy, with sparse downs. Fox skins are distinguished by long and coarse hair, and the down is quite thick.

The Arctic fox is very fluffy and has a thick down. The hair is shiny and quickly straightens when rumpled. Natural arctic fox fur differs from artificial fur in its specific quality - it does not freeze in the cold. In addition, under electric lighting it begins to shine greatly, while artificial lighting becomes dull in color.

Mink coats are the most expensive. Her fur is soft, not prickly, elastic. In the sun the skin shines very beautifully. Beaver - with a very thick and dense undercoat, due to which the underbelly is not visible. His coat is 5 cm long, and if you hold your hand against its growth, you feel a tingling sensation.

Natural astrakhan fur is shiny and has specific curls. It is smooth, moderately soft and shiny. Sheepskin is exceptionally dense, soft and warm. The sheepskin coat has a soft, rough surface of a matte color. Depending on the type of leather and dressing, it varies in weight.

How to distinguish a fake visually

If you do not understand fur things at all, the first thing to do is to carefully study the product tag. It is usually sewn to the wrong side of outerwear. It indicates the materials of manufacture and composition. In the case of shoes, the manufacturer indicates the data on the box or insert.

Since natural fur costs a lot, the products are often branded. When you see a brand name on a product, you can then find information about the manufacturer yourself. You can also pre-select certain companies specializing in fur clothing and study the range so as not to buy artificial falsification.

You can distinguish synthetic items by their cheapness. Therefore, the surprisingly affordable price for a “real” mink coat, or boots with sheepskin should alert you. But remember that high prices can also be set for a fake - for the purpose of profit.

Note! Some modern synthetic furs are also expensive. The reason is high-cost production. Keep this in mind.

How to distinguish natural fur from a faux fur coat?

To begin with, you just need to stroke the fur coat: the real one is exceptionally pleasant to the touch. Depending on the type of animal, its coat can be smooth, fluffy, elastic, or slightly prickly in the hand.

Fur - natural and artificial

The following mechanical methods will help to distinguish artificial material:

1. Fire. Set fire to a few hairs: if they burn with a characteristic smell of burnt hair, this is the original. If they melt, forming balls, and emit an unpleasant odor, it is synthetic. When checking the authenticity of a sheepskin coat, a lit match is brought to its outer side - real leather does not burn.
2. A needle. She needs to pierce the product through and through: it is very difficult to pierce the real skin of a fur-bearing animal, but it is easy to pierce the artificial one.
3. Mash the flesh a little. Natural material is either elastic or resembles elastic paper. Synthetic pile is always attached to a fabric base.

The lining of the originals is stitched in such a way that the inside can be seen. And in artificial fur coats the hem is sewn “tightly”. Finally, real fur coats and sheepskin coats weigh less than fake ones. The video shows the main differences.

How to identify synthetic boots

Most often, boots are lined with fur on the inside. This gives them heat-saving qualities. The most common option for this type of finish is sheepskin. If it is real, then it will feel like very dense and soft cotton wool. It is also distinguished by its resistance to deformation - the crushed pile quickly returns to its original position.

It is difficult to get to the inner surface of the shoe - the wool of sheep is so thick. The flesh itself has a shade inherent in wool - only if the sheepskin is not dyed. Synthetic sheepskin is rarer, not as pleasant to the touch and does not straighten out when wrinkled. Instead of flesh, it has a fabric base.

Fur is sometimes used as a decorative exterior trim for boots. In some models, manufacturers make insoles from mink. There are shoes whose shafts are entirely made of arctic fox, fox or raccoon. In these cases, you can distinguish natural fur on boots in the same way as on fur coats.

Fur trim on hoods and collars

Here you can very often end up with a fake. Faux furs are very similar to natural ones, and the small size of the trim sometimes misleads incompetent buyers.

Synthetic skins can be distinguished by the following characteristics:

• too dull or bright shine;
• in arctic fox or fox products, tangled hairs are quite problematic to untangle;
• If stored improperly, the pile becomes deformed and it is difficult to return it to its original shape.
• if you press your cheek to the collar, it will not warm it.

A characteristic feature of artificial pile is its bright, atypical coloring for the animal world. In general, an unnatural finish leaves an unnatural feeling, and it is difficult to confuse it with the real thing, but it is possible. In the photo you can clearly see the difference between synthetics and the original.

Note! Real furs are also dyed in different colors.

You can immediately distinguish any natural fur coat from an artificial one by weight. Natural products are much lighter than artificial ones. They are very comfortable to move in and much warmer. When properly stored, their appearance does not change for years - unlike synthetic ones. But the latter are not damaged by moths.

And among people there are more copies than originals.

Pablo Picasso

Modern industry, using the latest technology, is able to produce artificial furs that are almost indistinguishable from the fur of some animal species. How to spot a fake, how to identify it using improvised means?

The technologies of modern light industry have reached such perfection these days that, when buying a fur coat, we can no longer be completely sure that it is made of natural fur. Ideal imitations of fox, mink, beaver, muskrat, seal, and raccoon filled the counters and fitting rooms of fur salons. However, some brands have deliberately abandoned the use of natural fur in the manufacture of their models. This is due to the “green” movement, which has serious weight in society. Let's look at faux fur, weigh the pros and cons of using this material and purchasing outerwear made from it, and draw our own conclusions based on this.

What is faux fur made from?

Currently, faux fur is manufactured in four varieties: woven, knitted, glued and stitched. Regardless of the type, it consists of two main components - the base and the pile.

Woven fur is produced using a technology in which two base fabrics are connected (weaving process) with a pile thread, which is subsequently cut. The knitting method involves knitting the pile into the warp using special circular knitting machines.

The stitching and adhesive methods involve making the base and pile separately, after which they are combined. If the adhesive method is used, the pile is glued to the base, and with the stitching method, it is stitched through it.

Pile is made from various synthetic threads, for example, viscose, polyester, other polyamide, polyester and acetate threads. When making the base, cotton is most often used with the addition of synthetic fiber to give the fabric greater strength.

Artificial fur

Differences between artificial and natural fur

Faux fur is inferior to natural fur in many ways. But it has huge advantages - it's low cost and excellent relations with the Green Party. Otherwise, he is losing ground a lot. It is considered “cold” fur due to its low ability to retain heat. He cannot withstand the cold for a long time, the person begins to freeze. High susceptibility to contamination makes caring for a faux fur product a pain. Constant cleaning not only becomes tiring, but also leads to a deterioration in the appearance of the product. Faux fur is afraid of water, especially if it is made using adhesive technology. When wet, fabric is more susceptible to deformation than the natural skin of a fur-bearing animal. As a consequence of these shortcomings, the service life of artificial fur is short. No product made from it will be worn for more than four seasons.

Five ways to distinguish real fur from artificial fur

If you are still not a fan of faux fur, it would be a good idea to give some recommendations on how to distinguish real fur from a fake. There are five most convenient and reliable ways by which you can determine the origin of fur on a particular product.

The first and easiest way is to look at the base. Part the fur and notice what the material underneath looks like. In natural fur, this is leather (the so-called mezdra). Faux fur has a fabric base on which the interweaving of fibers is clearly visible. If you see such a structure, then it is definitely a fake, and the fur is artificial.

It is also worth trying this method: tear out a few fibers from the fur and set them on fire. Natural fur will burn with the smell of burnt hair and leave behind only ashes. And artificial fur will not burn, but melt, turning into a puddle or a ball of plastic instead of ash. And when burning it will smell like plastic.

You can try to determine the origin of the fur by touch. Natural fur is softer and more delicate. In most cases, faux fur is much heavier than natural fur and has less shine when exposed to sunlight.

It is worth carefully studying the label, on which the manufacturer must indicate the origin of the material from which the product was made. If there is no label, then think about whether there is any need to buy such a dubious product. An honest seller always puts an adequate price on fur products. If the price is noticeably lower than that of other products made from the same fur, then this is the surest sign that the fur is artificial. And finally, faux fur wrinkles more easily. After all, its basis is fabric, which does not always return to its original shape after creasing, like natural fur. When inspecting the item you decide to buy, pay attention to wrinkled folds, creases, and so on. The more there are, the more likely it is that this fur is artificial.

And although fakes are becoming more sophisticated every day, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish real fur from artificial fur, we hope that our advice will still help you make the right choice when buying a fur product.